except for syria. syria, they were fine with it, because russia was their best friend. and this best friendship has survived the cold war. russia and syria have had a sort of de facto exchange program over the last few decades. syrian military officers go to russia to study. and then they return to syria with their education and with russian wives. there are a lot of russian women who are married to syrian men who are living in syria. the two countries have had their share of disagreements over the years, but honestly, they have stuck together. at times when syria has not had a friend in the whole world they have had russia. and vice versa. this is a scud missile. scud missiles are of russian design. they're basically entry-level ballistic missiles, in the words of a bbc story about them today. ballistic missiles 101, if you will. scuds are not that accurate, but they are easy to move around. they're not that big. they're not that complicated. you can put all sorts of different warheads on them. eke. and as ballistic missiles go, scud missiles are fairly ubiquitous in t